Lansky Makes ‘Em Sharp

Knife-sharpening confuses the hell out of me — there are so many old wives tales, half-truths, and rules of thumb offering contradictory advice on how to do it. Luckily the Lansky Knife Sharpening System takes the guesswork out of putting a sharp, safe edge on a blade.

A dual sided knife clamp, the heart of the Lansky System, holds the blade securely and provides angle guides to keep the honing stones at a consistent angle as they’re pulled across the blade. You can set the guides at 17, 20, 25, or 30 degree angles for multiple edges. A molded case keeps everything organized, including a bottle of honing oil.

The basic $35 kit comes with coarse, medium, and fine hones for the basics of blade sharpening. Lansky also offers several other types of hones separately: diamond- impregnated hones for faster cutting, Arkansas hones for a mirror finish, and serrated hones meant to sharpen in tight spaces. If you’re like me and the razor edge of your dreams still eludes you, get one of these and you’ll be shaving with that Swiss Army knife in no time.

I’ve not heard the best things about this kit…i’ve heard it’s a little fiddly to get it set up right. The sharpmaker from spyderco is very well regarded (especially for touching blades up) and does an awesome job on knives that are already ground to the right edge profile, but the edgepro is where it’s at if you want a REALLY good sharpener (and don’t mind dropping $200 on one).